My 2nd Chance is in a Fantasy World
by Xerpt
Summary: A reverse gender roles story. John Clark knew that his life sucked. Dying on the same day you were finally going to be reunited with your family though? That took the cake. Waking up as Jaune Arc, his counterpart on a whole other world where monsters exist though, that was the best thing that ever happened to him. Dark, sweet, innocent, with eventual sex scenes. Rated M.
1. Prologue: John Clark

_Where people gather, there are dark and twisted desires that appear_

_Where dark desires gather, there are people that appear to exploit it for profit_

* * *

Everyone called it, "Dead Man's Feet".

John Clark stared at his bowl, the familiar and disgusting sludge inside staring right back at him. It dared him to consume it, to be desperate enough to live that he would eat the corpse-gray mash of materials that had been boiled to death. This was not something that a normal person could stomach, it was not something that could be eaten in almost any situation.

John picked up his spoon and timidly dug his spoon into it.

It was something that couldn't be eaten by normal people, and in any normal situation would never have been consumed. But this wasn't a normal situation that a normal person would've found themselves.

The 14-year-old had pale white skin, practically untouched by the Sun's blessings, and black, spiky hair which defied gravity. He was John Clark, and he was no normal person. The boy had eaten this same bowl of food 3-4 times a day, every day since he'd been kidnapped when he was 4-years-old. Sometimes he ate more of it, sometimes he ate less of it.

It tasted the same as it always did, and probably the same as it always would. Like the desperation of someone willing to eat a dead man's foot to survive. It had barely even touched his tongue before the taste buds in his mouth immediately, and _violently_, rejected it by puking it out in the hopes of purging it from his system. At this point, John couldn't even remember what other food tasted like. It'd already been more than 10 years since he'd eaten anything else, but it was so awful that not even having eaten it on a regular basis could make someone get used to the taste.

It was so bad that Jaune ravenously dug into it after he'd puked, _because it honestly tasted a little less horrible with vomit in it._

There was a saying, though. _Misery loves company_. Even if the black-haired boy had already gone beyond miserable and had long-since accepted this kind of lifestyle, he couldn't help but be glad that he wasn't the only one suffering through this.

At that exact moment, John was sitting in a lunchroom full of other boys and girls his age that wouldn't have been out of place in a highschool. Of course, the pale-skinned kid wouldn't have known that. In fact, none of the equally pale-skinned kids in the room would've known either, considering that everyone in the room had been taken when they were 4 as well.

They'd never seen the inside of an elementary school before, let alone a highschool.

John was the oldest of all of the kids in the room, though. They were all around the same age, the youngest being around 11 while John himself was 14, and they were a tight-knit bunch.

He looked up as a tray clattered onto his table directly across from him.

"Hey, John, can I sit here? Thanks!" A high-pitched voice called out, the owner of said voice already sitting down without waiting for an answer. Her short, brown hair was honestly the only bright and cheery thing in the room, aside from her personality. It didn't matter that her smile was a little forced, or that she was a little _too _cheery for their shared circumstances, Laura was one of the few rays of sunshine left to the group of kids. Heck, she might as well have been the sun itself, it's not like any of them still remembered what it was like, anyway. "SOOOOO… today's the big day, right? Happy Birthday, John!"

Despite how cheery it was, he could clearly see the grip on her spoon tighten.

Another clatter rang out as a boy with long, blonde hair tied into a ponytail set his tray down next to the energetic girl, a calm look on his face. Despite the color of his hair, he was clearly Asian. "Happy Birthday, John."

The black-haired 14 year old that was turning 15 today twitched. "Thanks, Ben."

Before he could even say anything else, John suddenly fell forward, his face smacking against the surface of the table before bouncing right back up again. Laura glared at the person who was now standing right behind him, with Ben giving an icy stare.

The black-haired boy mentally sighed. '_And somehow, I think I already know who it is.' _John turned around and looked up to see a kid who was only a few months younger than he was, but already had a frame that was clearly bigger and more muscular than John was.

Ian Winch.

"Better watch yourself out there, Clark. Nobody's going to come and save your ass this time." The 14 year old spat out.

Anyone else would've thought that the kid was just being a bully, and making a threat. John, though, clearly saw the worry in the other boy's sharp, brown eyes. It was a warning, from someone who'd never admit it. "Thanks, Ian . I'll be careful, don't worry."

"Who the _hell_ would worry about someone like you?!" The red-headed boy said as he stormed off.

Laura and Ben watched him leave, both of them clearly suspicious of his actions and were ready in case he made a move. Laura was the first to tear her gaze away from the aggressive boy and turn back towards John.

"Want me to break his legs? I'll do it, y'know." She said in a very _not-Laura_ kind of way. Her voice was lower, and she spoke in an uncharacteristically serious voice, a dark look on her face. "Just say the word."

John just gave a soft smile and shook his head. "Ian 's the kind of guy that can never say things right, Laura. He's just as worried for me as everyone else is."

Laura's eyes sharpened. "He's _NOT _the guy you think he is, John. You've got to stop letting him push you around like that!"

"Laura, he's _NOT _bullying me. Name one time."

The brown-haired girl opened her mouth, a tirade practically about to cascade out of it, when a hand on her shoulder managed to stop the flood.

"Laura," Ben said in his usual calm manner. "We have to let John make his own decisions and trust that he knows when to turn to us for help."

She snorted. "Yeah, right. Like _that'll _ever happen." Laura looked to the blonde-haired boy sitting next to her. "Y'know, Ben, for someone with the last name _Franklin_, you really aren't _frank _or truthful about this stuff. We all know you want to beat him up just as much as I do."

Ben looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about." He lied, forcibly unclenching his shaking fist. "I'm just saying that John knows that we're here for him, and that we'll back him up when he needs it." The blonde-haired boy regretted those words as soon as they left his mouth.

They all knew it wasn't true. Ben and Laura couldn't help him when he needed it the most, because _today _would be the day that he needed them.

And they wouldn't be allowed to help.

Nobody spoke for awhile, and they all sat there in silence. Pandora's box was already opened though, and it was inevitable that they'd start talking about _it_. You couldn't _not _talk about it, when it was the goal, _the dream_, of every single kid in the whole organization. It was what they'd been striving for practically their entire lives.

John was the first to break the silence. "Have you guys heard anything about it?"

Ben spoke up, which was unusual for him as he was always more of the silent type. Today wasn't a usual day, though. "Laura and I haven't heard much, but we _have _found out that it's at least not going to be someone from our batch."

"Actually," Laura cut in. "I found something out just this morning. You'd be surprised what the guards will let you overhear when they think you're just a bubbly airhead who can't hear anything over the sound of her own voice." She smirked.

The -usually loud, overactive and bubbly- girl motioned them to lean in as she whispered. "One of the guards were saying something earlier about how "hot" the person they're bringing in is and how he wanted to "bang" her, but another one of the guards told him that she'd be "too much for him to handle" so he'd better not start anything with her unless he wanted to die."

Ben and John looked at her with quizzical looks on their faces. Both of them were thinking the same thing, but neither of them wanted to be the one to ask. They looked at each other, a silent war was waged, before it was clear who won and who lost.

"Uh, Laura," John said slowly. "I don't get it. What does any of that stuff even mean?"

Ben nodded, showing her that he was wondering the same thing.

Laura just stared at her two best friends. "Seriously? You guys don't get it? Ugh!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "First off, since they're bringing her in, that _means_ she's not part of any of the batches!"

The confusion on their faces cleared up, and John visibly relaxed. "That's a _good_ thing, right?" He didn't have to tell them that he was worried he'd have to go up against someone from their batch. They already knew, and _now _they knew that it'd never happen.

"No, John. That's a _bad_ thing. A very, _very_ bad thing." Laura emphasized. "If she was part of our batch, or one of the other batches, then it'd be easier. She'd be our age, probably around our height, yada yada. But!" The brown-haired girl said with a shushing finger, stopping John's comments before he even started. "She's not. They're bringing her in from outside, probably just to make it _that_ much harder for you to win. Whoever it is, she'll be older, smarter, faster, _and _stronger than us."

"Don't you get it?" Laura continued. "_That's _why Violent Pete said she's 'hot'. It's because she's dangerous! She's so deadly that his first reaction was to shoot (bang) her. Everyone knows Violent Pete is good, but the woman they're bringing in is so dangerous that she's too much for even Pete to handle!"

John and Ben frowned, nodding to show that they understood. Everything Laura said had made complete sense, and if one of the deadliest of the organization's guards couldn't beat her, then John was in trouble.

A match on someone's 15th birthday was always a Ranked Match. Unlike most of the other times throughout the year, that meant that it'd be a fight to the _**death**_. There was no way around it, no surrender, and no help from anyone at all.

The three of them sat there, the grim reality setting in and crashing down like a pile of bricks on them.

However, proving once again that today was not going to be anywhere _near _normal, Ben broke the silence. "So, what are you gonna do afterwards?" He asked John, as if there was no possibility that he'd lose.

The newly-turned 15 year old smiled. He knew he was lucky to have met them, even if it was at the place they all thought was hell. "You know, I think the first thing I'll do is get some new clothes. _Anything's _gotta be better than this stuff." John gestured to the "clothes" he was wearing.

Actually, they were the "height of fashion" as "everyone was wearing them"...Ok, the sad truth is that no amount of words could've made the clothes better than they were. Even though literally everyone in the lunch hall was wearing them, they were all equally miserable because of it.

The outfit was made up of 3 parts: a pair of pants, a shirt, and a button-up coat. All three pieces were as gray as the Dead Man's Feet that were in everyone's bowls, thin and terrible quality. They were itchy, scratchy, left rashes on parts of your body that you couldn't reach without seriously contorting yourself, and despite the fact that the outfit came with a coat, you could get sick from the cold easily at night due to how thin it was.

In fact, the only good thing about it was that it was cheap. So cheap, that every time 2 or more batches were merged together due to low numbers, everyone got a new outfit. Not that any of them could appreciate or understand the concept of something being "cheap" since they'd all been taken before they could even count, let alone understand the value of money. As for why the batches of kids would get low in numbers, well, Ranked Matches happened on more than just people's 15th birthdays.

The dead didn't need their old clothes, and the living needed piles of these outfits just to make blankets thick enough so people didn't die from the cold at night.

Ben and Laura nodded in understanding.

"The second thing I'm gonna do," John continued. "Is finally eat something that _isn't _this stuff." He held up a spoonful of the gray sludge that reluctantly gave their bodies continued life. The black-haired 15 year old slowly turned his spoon over, until it was completely upside down…. But somehow the evil, grey slime managed to cling to the spoon instead of falling back into the bowl. In fact, John could've _sworn _that the thing was actually inching closer to his hand! "Ah!" He yelped, before quickly dropping the spoon before the slime could reach its goal, the greyness finally joining back up with the ooze that it had come from as the spoon landed back into the bowl.

The three of them stared at each of their bowls, lost in thought.

"Honestly, I can't even remember what other food tastes like." Laura scowled. "Every time I try, the only thing that pops into my head is, well…" She gestured back to the bowl.

"I'm coming back." The words left John's mouth before he even realized he said them, but somehow he also knew that those three words were probably the most truthful things he'd said in his entire life. "I'm not going to leave you guys like this. I'm coming back no matter what, and I'll be bringing people that can shut this place down."

Laura bit her lip. "John, you know that's-" Her words were once again stopped by a hand on her shoulder, Ben giving her a small shake of the head.

All three of them knew that what John was talking about was impossible.

Ben and Laura both shared the same birthday, and in 4 months they'd be going through the exact same thing John was at that moment. There was just too little time. Either they'd lose their Ranked Match and die, or they'd win and get the thing that every single boy and girl in the room wanted. The Grand Prize.

They'd get sent back home to their families.

Either way, this was the last time they'd be seeing their friend.

The blonde-haired boy with a ponytail shared a look with the brown-haired girl sitting next to him. She nodded, and they both pushed their trays towards John.

"Happy Birthday, John!" Laura smiled.

"It's not much, but it's our present to you. You'll need all the strength you can get." Ben said.

"You guys…" John's eyes teared up, before he hid the streams falling down his cheeks by ravenously digging into the bowls.

Everyone called it "Dead Man's Feet".

A toxic, corpse-gray sludge that some people would probably choose to die rather than eat. Something that would make you puke as soon as it touched your tongue, and then make you ravenously dig in because the vomit made it taste _just a little less toxic._

If you had found a rotting, stinking corpse of some person out in the middle of nowhere and then chopped off its slimy, maggoty foot to gnaw on the putrid flesh and digest the toenails from it, that meal still would've tasted better than the _monstrosity_ in the bowls.

It was also the only thing any of the 3 had to their name. Something that saved your life every day by staving off starvation, and it wasn't always true that you'd get another bowl before the next day, either. There was a chance that Ben and Laura would have to fight on an empty stomach because they gave away their food. While it wouldn't be a Ranked Match, and therefore not a fight to the death, more often than not the loser would be left with broken bones and a broken spirit.

Ben had lied and they all knew it. It wasn't "not much". It was worth more than gold, and John knew better than to waste the feelings behind it by turning it down.

There was nothing left to say. As John stood up from the table and headed back to his room to prepare for the match, he heard it start up.

"John!" Laura yelled out, banging her fist down on the table.

"John!" Ben took it up, his fist crashing down onto the table in rhythm with her.

A third voice joined in, surprising everyone because of who it came from. "John!" Ian Winch yelled out.

And before he knew it the whole lunch hall, everyone in his batch, were banging their fists down onto the table in rhythm. "JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN!" They chanted. It was their way of sending him off. No matter what happened, they knew they wouldn't be seeing him again.

The only thing he could do was give them a thumbs up as he left, the hopes, dreams, and cheers of the only people he'd ever known fading into the distance as he walked the long, dreary hallway back to the living quarters.

There were 2 hours left until his final deathmatch, and he had to get ready.

* * *

A black-haired woman in her late 30's stood, panting. She was tall, or at least she was taller than John was. A mask covered her face, making it even harder for her to see as sweat pooled from behind it and slid straight down into the valley between her breasts. The sight of her would've caused any normal man to instantly fall into lust as she was just that hot. For John, however….

'_Opponent is sweating. Vision is likely to be hampered by both the mask and the fluids.' _Those were the only thoughts behind his stony face, which was covered by a similar mask that the older woman wore.

There was no need for Sex Ed. in an organization that kidnapped and trained children to be lethal fighters who fought for the amusement of the rich. Deprived of any contact from normal society, there was also no way that they would've found out anything remotely close to it. The guards themselves were forbidden from speaking to any of the kids on anything unrelated to the wishes of the global 1%. There was no time for experimentation or discovering their bodies or any of the other things that kids just starting puberty would do. Just trying to live took up every second of their days as each of them could have been called up for a Ranked Match at any time during the year; any who didn't want to die would spend every waking moment training and preparing for it. Perhaps if any of them had lived past the age of 15 they would've discovered it themselves but the sad truth was that none had made it back to their batches after their 15th birthday.

It made for an odd combination of "lethal" and "innocence".

The two of them stood in an indoor arena that could've been mistaken for a highschool's track, an oval-shaped running area on the outside with a large grassy center on the inside. Various blades were strewn about them in the grass, with only their hilts sticking out from the was no wind, as 4 walls enclosed the entire area. There was no sound, as everything was blocked off by the soundproofing technology that made it so nothing from the outside could be heard from the inside, and vice versa.

It was the same as every other time that John had faced someone in a deathmatch, with one exception.

This time, before the match had even begun, the head of his batch had come personally to have a short talk with him.

The black-haired 15 year old shook his head free of the feelings of _wrongness_ and turned his attention back towards the woman in front of him. John narrowed his eyes. He'd come to a conclusion, and it was something mind-boggling. '_She's getting tired,' _He realized.

That was impossible. The fight was only a few minutes in, even the youngest kid in his batch had more stamina than that!

'_I thought this fight was fight was supposed to be the hardest one yet. She's supposed to be so 'hot' that even Violent Pete can't handle her! What's going on?' _

It was fishy. There was definitely something wrong.

John had seen people fake exhaustion in the middle of a deathmatch before, only to jump up and kill their opponent at the last second. He could always tell when they were faking.

And the woman in front of him was doing anything but.

Reaching up, John pulled off his mask and glared at the adult woman in front of him. The black-haired lady violently spasmed at the sight of his face, before dropping the knife that she had.

….That only made John even more pissed off.

"HEY!" He yelled out. "What are you doing?! Pick it up and FIGHT ME!"

The woman just stood there, unresponsive.

'_Is she just making fun of me? Is she looking down on me?!' _John's vision went red as he charged full-sprint straight towards her with his knife in hand.

It was a rookie mistake. Anyone could've taken advantage of his angry, bull-like charge and easily killed him afterwards.

She didn't.

His knife plunged into her body as he stabbed her. Over, and over, and over. Again, and again and again, her red kept splashing out. It wouldn't be the first time he killed someone. It wouldn't even be his hundredth.

She didn't let out a single sound.

The only thing the woman did was wrap her arms around him, softly rubbing the back of his head as he kept trying to kill her…. It took several minutes until she finally fell backwards, dead.

He stared at her.

He stared at his hands.

He stared at the red that he was standing in as it pooled around her body.

He stared at the red which coated his hands.

And John Clark _**SCREAMED**_.

Until it was abruptly cut off. The 15 year old was sent flying, the deafening bang of a gunshot making it clear what happened.

The black-haired boy knew that he was dying. A similar, if smaller, pool of red was gathering all around him. As the shadow of his killer stood over him, he recognized who it was that shot him.

Violent Pete.

"W-Why?" He croaked.

He honestly didn't know if he was asking why he'd been shot, why he'd been kidnapped, or why he'd even been born. His head was already starting to go blank at this point.

"-shouldn't blame me, kid. Orders are orders, and the boss-man wants you dead. I might like fighting, but killing you like this don't sit right with me." John's killer crouched down until his head was near John's. "Look, kid. I'll let you in on a secret. You won the Grand Prize. Ya get to go be with your family. You already sent the last one of'em off yourself just now." The man nodded his head towards the dead body still laying on the ground a few feet away. "Your momma's one tough nut. She didn't scream when we cut out her tongue, she didn't crack when we burned that mask onto her face, and she didn't even budge an inch when you were stabbing her like crazy."

You couldn't get more heartbroken than a bullet to the heart, but John found out that wasn't true.

It wasn't like a hole in his heart.

It was like someone had thrust their hand into your body and ripped your still beating heart out, munching on it right in front of you. .

It was like someone had put a cage of mice on his chest and warmed up the opposite end, making it so that they would eat their way through his body to escape being boiled alive, squeaking with fear and fury as they gorged their way into, and eventually out of, your body.

….It was realizing that someone loved you. They had lost you and spent every minute of their lives trying to get you back ... and did nothing but smile even as you ripped and stabbed them into something looked more like shredded meat than a corpse.

"Truth is," Violent Pete continued. "The families of all you kids we got you from always come looking for ya. So we kidnap'em too once every few years and mix'em in with your deathmatch opponents every now and then. Ya kill your last one on your 15th birthday, then we let ya go and join up with the rest of your family. S'nothing personal, kid." He finished, standing up and walking away.

...There was nothing John could do. It was his fate to just lie there and wait till he died. But after hearing the truth about everything that was happening, he didn't want to go out like this. There was no way he could just die after hearing everything!

'_Please, God, someone, anyone.' _He prayed. '_Give me a 2nd chance. I have to kill those bastards that made my family disappear!'_

Right before he died, he could've sworn he heard someone say,

"**I'll do you one better."**

Which was when Jaune Arc opened his eyes.


	2. Chapter 1: Jaune Arc

Jaune Arc opened his eyes.

The 6-year-old lay in his bed, staring up at a picturesque blue sky. White, puffy clouds dotted the scene alongside a yellow sun which bathed it all in a glow.

….The whole thing was fake, of course. The reason why it was such a picturesque scene was because it was actually a mural which had been painted onto his ceiling. Jaune had spent lots of time staring up at it and imagining that he was actually outdoors.

At that moment the only thing you could see of him was his little blonde-haired head as the rest of him was tucked away under the sheets. His face was a little paler than normal but was common among little kids who stayed indoors often.

You'd never realize that he'd been a sickly boy since he was born.

Not from the color of his skin, anyway. It was only until you took a closer look that you'd realize he was practically half a head shorter than kids his age should've been. Jaune Arc couldn't remember a day where he hadn't felt weak, tired and a little sick. His parents kept him inside the house for the most part, always afraid that something would happen to him if he was left alone. There _was _one exception though.

"Jaune? You in there?"

The 6-year-old Arc sat up against the headboard. Already starting to feel cold, he also gathered up the blankets and wrapped them around himself. "I'm here, Saph." He called out.

The door opened and in stepped his 2nd oldest sister, Saphron Arc. She had blonde hair which was so dark that it almost brown, along with blue eyes that were almost purple. The 8-year-old Arc was wearing brown pants, a sleeveless orange shirt with a sleeveless white vest on top.

Walking into her little brother's room, the first thing she saw was Jaune sitting up against the headboard, with his blankets wrapped all around him like a cocoon. Before she knew it, she had already dashed to the side of the bed. "Jaune, are you ok? Are you sick? You know, we don't _have _to go out today. We can stay inside, if you want."

"_Sis!_," He whined back with a pout. "I _want_ to go outside. It's _boring _staying inside all day."

Saphron bit her lip. "Ok," She reluctantly agreed. "But only for a little while, ok?

"Yay! You're the best, big sis!" Jaune yelled out happily, hugging her.

Saphron looked down at her younger brother with a warm smile, before she spoke up with a firm tone. "Don't forget to put on a jacket, Jaune." His older sister strode towards his closet. Sliding the door open, Saphron eyed the selection for a good few seconds before grabbing the one that looked like it'd be the warmest. She walked back and handed it to Jaune.

The younger Arc giggled. "Sis, you worry too much. It's not even that cold outside, anyway."

"Oh _yeah?_" Saphron said, poking her brother's forehead with her index finger playfully. "And how do _you_ know that, mister? You haven't even gone outside yet."

"Because you're wearing sleeveless stuff. It can't be _that_ cold out there."

She looked down at her outfit before looking back up at her kid brother, who had a smug grin on his face. "Alright, smartypants!" Saphron said, ruffling up Jaune's light-blonde hair, making extra sure that it was completely messy.

"Saph! My hair!"

"That's what you get for being such a smartypants! Now, I'll be back in a minute, ok? You're still putting on the jacket, though."

"Aw!" Jaune still nodded to her as she left though, straightening out his hair into something less weird-looking. The door softly closed shut.

It hadn't even been closed for a split second before it slammed back open as a little creature with a mop of equally light blonde hair as Jaune's dashed in at full speed and jumped onto Jaune's bed.

"Bro!" It yelled out.

Knowing what was going to happen as soon as his door had been slammed open, Jaune already had his arms outstretched and ready to catch his 4-year-old little sister before she could even jump. His arms shook with the effort of catching her, his hands automatically going to the back of her head as they cradled around her protectively.

The only son of the Arc family swore that he practically had a heart attack every time she did this. And he was 6!

"Ru, you can't keep jumping like that!" He chided her. "You're a big girl now, getting taller and heavier too. One day I won't be able to catch you anymore."

"But you always catches me! Always!" The youngest daughter of the Arc family gave the biggest, toothy grin that her 4-year-old self could give. "Bro's bigger. So bro's always going to catch me!"

Jaune sighed a little inside even as he chuckled. Those big, dark-blue eyes staring back at him were always so full of belief in him that he could never bring himself to tell her that there was even a possibility that it wasn't true. "Yep, that's right. Bro's _always _going to protect you, Ru." There was a loud, "Ew!" as he gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Can you do something for me, Ru?" He asked.

"Ru can do _EVERYTHING!" _The 4 year old declared, with her fists on her hips.

He smiled. "You mean _anything_, Ru."

"Yeah! Ru can do _ANY-EVERYTHING!_"

….Well, she was only 4, so Jaune knew that she didn't have to get it right, right then and there.

"Since you can do _any-everything_, can you do something for me?"

She nodded, her eyes glowing with a "Leave it to me!" aura.

"Can you go into my closet and get me something to wear?"

"Leave it to me!" Ru practically screamed out as she happily dashed off his bed and to his closet. "_**Picking sutuff for bro, picking stuff for bro!" **_She sang out.

Jaune winced. His sister was already showing signs of being amazing at singing even at the age of 4. There was only one problem...

"_**Picking stuff for bro!" **_Out flew his red shirt, a pair of his blue pants quickly flying out and joining it in a pile right outside the closet. '_**Picking stuff for bro! It's not like picking your nose, cuz I'm so cool!" **_

The songs that his younger sister, Cerulean "Ru" Arc, made up were always _weird!_ He honestly couldn't think of even _one _song that she'd sung that was normal!

A blue shirt flew out like a missile, followed by a green one, another red, and two pink shirts. By this point, Jaune's floor was practically littered with clothes all over.

'_It's fine. I'll be fine with whatever she chooses.' _He thought to himself. '_As long as it's not black or grey. DEFINITELY not GREY.' _

'_**Itchy. Scratchy. Piles of it everywhere. It hides the dead. Yesterday's friend goes under it. She wouldn't mind. They never mind. They can't mind. They never mind when we slip under the piles of it with them. It's so cooold. They still have some warmth left in them. They don't mind if we sleep next to them to share the last bits they'll ever have. If they did, they'd tell us, right?**_

_**They're always gone by morning, though. Maybe they do mind? Where do they go? Is it someplace better? Someplace worse? Why don't they take us with them?**_

_**Why don't they take us with them?**_

_**WHY DON'T THEY TAKE US WITH THEM?!**_

_**WHY DON'T THEY?!'**_

It was something the whole family still hadn't picked up on. He _HATED _the color gray. He didn't know why, but he just _HATED _it! Anytime his parents had gotten him a gray or black shirt, he'd thrown it to the back of his closet and never looked at it again. Looking at the growing pile of colorful clothes that were all over his floor, he couldn't help but be worried that she might actually pick one of _those _colors.

Still, that didn't mean he'd be getting up anytime soon to pick something out himself instead. There were ... _reasons, _that he didn't like looking through his closet.

'_**Dark. Flashes of light straight into the eyes. RED. SO MUCH RED! Can't get it off. It won't come off. Ben? Laura? Why won't it come off? WHY WON'T IT COME OFF!'**_

"Bro! I got it!" Ru yelled out, her arms raised in victory, a yellow shirt with the family crest in white over the left breast, and brown pants tightly clutched in both fists.

Shocked back into reality, he quickly shook his head. He could never remember what it was exactly that set him off or what he was thinking about, but he always found himself in a cold sweat at certain times.

At one point he'd even found himself clenching his fist so hard that his nails had cut open his palm!

...That hadn't been easy to explain to his parents.

Jaune let out a sigh of relief, smiling at his little sister who was holding onto his clothes proudly. The 6-year-old held out his hands towards Ru. "Can you pass it over here?"

Quick as a whistle, she practically bounded over, splitting apart the sea of clothes that had formed on the floor of his room. Ru grinned as she handed them over, her smile so wide that he could actually see her sparkling teeth.

"Thank you, Ru." He rubbed the top of her head, feeling his little sister's soft hair tickle his palm.

"Told you. Ru can do _any-everything!_"

Pulling his old shirt over his head, Jaune made sure to fold it neatly and plopped it on his bedside table before putting on the bright yellow t-shirt his sister had gotten him.

….Although to be honest, with how crazy his room now looked with numerous piles of clothes strewn about, it wouldn't have made a difference if he had just tossed it somewhere.

'_Now the only thing left is…' _Jaune's eyes went to the pair of brown pants that sat on his bed next to the jacket that Saph had left for him. '_Yeeeeah, this is gonna be a little hard.' _

"Bro?" A pair of dark-blue eyes stared at him worriedly. "Something wrong? Did Ru mess up?"

Ru's eyes heated up, and she could feel them getting a little wet. She didn't want her brother to be mad at her. Ru had done her best and found him the best, _bestest_, stuff to wear!

Jaune acted quickly, moving on that supernatural instinct that all older siblings have which tells them that their younger siblings were about to cry. "No no no, Ru! You did a _great_ job. I _love_ them, see?" He grabbed the pair and gave them a big kiss, with _really _exaggerated kissing sounds.

"Ew!" His sister said before starting to laugh, now nowhere near close to crying. "You're so weird!"

"Hey!" He yelled out playfully. "Say, Ru, I'm gonna go out with big sis Saph soon. Can you go make some strawberry milk and bottle it up for me?"

"On it!"

As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Jaune's smile dropped as he took another look at the pants in his hands. There was no way he was going to try doing this in front of his little sister, _especially_ not when she still had the "Bro can do anything!" look in her eyes.

This was the other reason why he couldn't walk over to the closet and pick out something to wear.

…..

A few minutes later, the door opened as his older sister Saphron came in with a worn, yet comfortable looking wheelchair.

She took one look at the gigantic mess that his room had been reduced to and arched an eyebrow. "Ru?"

"Ehe...she was trying to help me with something?" He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. The younger Arc had already gotten changed and was wearing the coat that Saph had picked out for him.

The 8-year-old sighed. "It's fine, Jaune. I'll clean it up later."

"Sorry, sis."

"I already said it's ok, Jaune. Don't worry about it." Saphron said with a cheery smile. "Anything for my _cute _little brother." She teased.

"Sis!" The six year old hid his burning cheeks by pulling his bedsheets up higher to cover his face. "I'm _not _cute."

The older blonde just laughed back in response.

Moving several piles of clothes, Saphron was able to quickly make a path for the wheelchair to get to Jaune's bed. "Alright, Jaune. Let's get you into the chair."

The younger Arc moved the bedsheets off of himself, before picking up each leg one at a time with his hands and moving to the edge of the bed.

That's right. Jaune Arc couldn't move his legs.

At least, he couldn't move his legs like everyone else could. Obviously he could just move them if he picked them up and manually moved them.

Jaune Arc was a medical anomaly. He'd felt absolutely nothing from his legs ever since he could remember but the doctors couldn't find out why. They'd done scans of his brain, and found that it was completely normal. His brain sent and received signals from his legs. There was nothing physically wrong with them either. Technically speaking, his legs should've been able to move and even support his weight if he'd been able to stand.

...Actually, the fact that there was nothing physically wrong with his legs was weird in itself! Considering the fact that he'd never used them, Jaune's legs should've been thin, weak with so little muscle that it could've been snapped like a twig. Somehow though, his legs remained in almost perfect shape as if he was just a normal boy.

It was something that the doctors couldn't explain. Their only hope was that the paralysis would somehow just pass as he grew older. After all, initially, Jaune hadn't even been able to move any part of his arms either until he was around a year old.

Not that he knew that, since Jaune's earliest memories were from when he was around 3.

Jaune waved away Saphron's help.

The older Arc looked at him with worried eyes. "Jaune…"

"I got it, Saph!"

Under the worried gaze of his older sister, Jaune grabbed the armrests of the chair and lifted himself over, before twisting around and sitting down comfortably. "See? Told you I could do it!" He grinned.

She just looked at her brother with an arched eyebrow. "You know it would've been faster for me to do it, right?"

"Hmph!" The younger Arc crossed his arms and turned his head away. "I wanted to do it."

Saphron smirked. "Oh, no! My _cute_ little brother. Not the pout, _anything _but the pout!" She said dramatically.

Jaune's cheeks reddened and he mumbled something.

"What was that, my _cute _little brother?" That was all the warning she gave before she launched into a vicious tickle attack!

Her little brother burst into giggles as he bent in half, trying to stop her. "Sis!" The light blonde-haired Arc called out in-between giggles. "Sis! I said I'm not pouting, I'm not pouting!"

The dark blonde-haired Arc stopped.

Which was right when Saphron's only other younger sibling popped up, a water bottle full of strawberry milk in hand. "Bro, I got your drink!" The youngest Arc said, a toothy grin on her face.

The smile faltered when she saw her older sister Saphron's stern face. "_Cerulean,"_ Their older sister said slowly.

Ru's breath caught in her chest, her eyes were already getting hot and wet. She was scared! Big sis only called her that when she was mad!

"Did you do _this_," Saphron gestured around them at the room which looked like a tornado had hit and scattered clothes all around. "to your brother's room?"

Ru looked, and it was like she was seeing it for the first time. Her Niichan's room was a mess, and it was all her fault! "I-I only w-wanted," Ru hiccuped. "to help!" She teared up.

'_Oh no.' _There was only enough time for that thought to flash through Jaune's mind, because before he could do anything, their older sister continued with a scowl.

"Well, you didn't! So WE are going to clean up his room, _right?_" She said, with more of a bite than she'd intended.

….Which is when the floodgates burst open, and Ru _bawled _her eyes out. Rivers flooded down her cheeks as she loudly cried. Snot dripped from her nose, and she kept hiccupping. Ru wanted it to stop, but it wouldn't. It wouldn't!

Jaune slapped his older sister's arm admonishingly. "Sis!" He accused.

"What? I only said that we'd be cleaning it up, later!" Saph tried to defend herself, but it was clear from the way she bit her lip and looked away that she was feeling guilty.

He rolled his eyes. '_Ugh, girls!' _The 6-year-old loved his older sister, but she was already acting like the rest of the girls her age. Always too proud to admit that they'd made a mistake.

Jaune spread his arms open. "Come here, Ru."

The 4-year-old Arc toddled into his arms, curling up into his lap on the wheelchair. "I-I only w-wanted to h-help!" Ru stuttered out in between her hiccups and crying. She felt her Niichan softly stroke her back.

"Shhh." He soothed into her ear, slowly rocking back and forth. "I know, Ru. Big bro knows you were only trying to help."

"I-I'm sor-ry."

"Shhh." Jaune soothed into her ear again as he rubbed her back. "It's ok, Ru. Niichan knows. Plus, you _did _help, you know?"

"I d-did?" Ru stammered out in between her hiccups.

"Yeah, you did. See?" He held up the water bottle that she'd brought. "Remember? I asked you to pack me a drink, and you did. Good job, Ru!" Jaune smiled at her.

"R-Ru did a good job?" The youngest Arc sniffled, her tears drying up. Her hiccups kept going though. They wouldn't stop!

"Yep. You did a good job, Ru." He said, rubbing the top of her head.

His younger sister snuggled into him, still sniffling, with her head resting in the crook of his neck.

Jaune slowly shifted his body, making sure that it wouldn't startle Ru. "Neechan," He whispered over his shoulder to Saph, who was still standing behind his wheelchair. "Can you get the small packet of tissues inside my backpack?"

The 6-year-old always kept a backpack full of useful things strapped to the back of his wheelchair.

Saph felt around inside the backpack until she pulled out what Jaune was asking for, and passed it over.

Jaune quietly ripped open the packaging and took out a couple of the tissues inside. "Ru." He softly whispered.

"Mn?" Ru replied, her face still buried in his shirt. The hiccups were finally gone, but now she couldn't stop sniffling.

"Here. Turn your head this way Ru."

She looked up and saw her brother holding a tissue. He put it over her nose and pinched.

"Blow your nose."

' "_**Blow your nose." He told her. She was the youngest in the group so far. She did as she was told, somehow making his hand a little sticky even though they were using a few layers of The Grey, which was what everyone called their clothes.**_

"_**I-I, I killed him. I just kept hitting him over the head with the hammer again and again. They didn't want me to s-stop. They made me keep doing it. T-they just kept laughing, calling m-me a 'real-life magical girl'. "**_

_**She looked up at him, her eyes watering. "I don't think I like being magical. Can you make it go away? Please?"**_

_**He just held her tightly to his chest, his arms protectively curling around her head like he remembered one of the older kids doing it to him once, before he'd gone under the covers of The Gray with all the others. **_

"_**It's okay. It's gonna be okay. Whatever you do, just smile, ok? You won't have to keep doing those things if you keep smiling. They don't laugh when we smile at them." He paused, before continuing. "Hey, what's your name? I'm John."**_

_**He heard sniffling, before a muffled voice spoke into his chest. "I'm Laura."**_

Ru did what her big bro told her to do, and before long the tissue was all sticky and gross. She went back to snuggling into her big brother right afterwards.

Jaune called out over his shoulder in a whisper, afraid to make any loud noise in case it got his little sister crying again. "Saph. There's a plastic bag that I packed in there so I could throw trash in it. Can you toss this in there?"

Saph silently took it from her little brother (barely touching the tissue by pinching it between her fingertips), as well as the tissue that came afterwards from wiping his shirt clean of Ru's snot, and quickly tossed them into the plastic bag that he'd mentioned. Jaune wasn't the only one afraid of setting off their little sister again.

Funny enough, the plastic bag was actually from Target.

Ru yawned. "Bro, I'm tired." She murmured into his chest, her head having fallen from the crook of his neck into the crook of his arm.

"It's ok, Ru. Why don't you go to sleep? Big Sis is gonna take us outside, and when you wake up we can go play on the big hill with the tree." He whispered to her.

"I'm sorry, sis." Ru tiredly whispered.

A little surprised, Saph just grunted awkwardly. "It's, uh, it's ok, Ru. Stuff happens."

Before long, the only sounds that came from Ru were the light sounds of her snoring.

Jaune held up the water bottle with his drink in it over his shoulder. "Sis, can you put this in the backpack? Keep it in a different pocket than the one with the plastic bag with trash."

Lightly grumbling and muttering to herself, Saph did what he asked before finally starting to wheel all three of them out of the room, out of the house, and into the village outside.

"Thanks, Saph."

* * *

Ansel village was located in the Kingdom of Mistral. It was built around an area that had a 330 foot tall tree, as the fruit that came from it had been enough to convince the founders to build their homes at that location. The village itself was relatively small; big enough that you wouldn't be able to know everyone in the village but small enough that if anything happened, the whole village would know about it within the day.

Actually, considering the fact that scroll service was terrible in the Mistralian countryside, the village's rumour mill was faster than calling someone.

Both Faunus and Humans populated the village. It was in no way peaceful at all, especially with all the jolly bar fights that the womenfolk in the village loved to get into at the end of the day (especially if there was a man involved as they loved showing off to get their attention). The village was loud, rowdy, and rambunctious. The wives of the village would get into small arguments over silly things with each other in the afternoon, and the next day their husbands would show up at their front door with a batch of baked goods to apologize for the trouble their spouses had caused. Everyone would forgive and forget, and go on with their lives until the cycle repeated again the week after.

There was no possible way for a village to be peaceful, but everyone in Ansel generally went to bed happy.

….Unless you were Mrs. Brown, who'd been practically in the doghouse for a week after her husband caught her drunkenly flirting with the waiters at the pub.

Jaune took in the sights, sounds and smells of the village, enjoying every single thing with a cheery smile on his face.

The smell of fresh, delicious bread wafting from the bakery, the sounds of people hawking their goods at the nearby marketplace, the funny sight of a woman on her knees in front of a man who was still shorter than her by a head.

Jaune drank it all in.

"Baby, please, it's been a week! I'm so sorry for what I did, please take me back!" The woman begged her husband, flowers in hand. She wore a dark brown top with a pair of black pants.

The man turned his head away with a "Hmph!", which is when he caught sight of Jaune and his sisters.

"Hi, Mr. Brown!" Jaune waved.

"Hi, Jaune!" Mr. Brown waved back, walking closer. He peered down at Ru, who was still sleeping while snuggled up to her brother on the wheelchair. "Oh, is this your younger sister? She's adorable!" He cooed, his cat ears standing up on his head.

"Yeah. She got a little tired so she's taking a nap right now."

While Jaune and Mr. Brown were talking, Saph and Mrs. Brown stood off to the side having their own private conversation, the older woman standing at a tall 6 feet 5 inches now that she was no longer kneeling on the ground.

The fully grown woman looked at Saph with a stern face. "Are you taking good care of your little brother?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Saph stood straight as a rod, her arms practically glued to her sides. Her dark-blonde hair was the only thing that moved, and even that was because of the breeze that came in.

The older woman nodded, her brown hair bobbing with her as she did so. "Good. Your mom said she'd be taking your sister to start her training to become a Huntress and wouldn't be back until tonight. You know what that means?"

Not wanting to say anything wrong, Saph slowly shook her head.

"It means," The brown-haired older woman said. "That you're the woman of the house now. You have to take care of your dad and your younger siblings. _Especially_ your brother. Do you understand?" She asked, looking the 8-year-old Arc in the eyes.

Saph gulped. "Yes, Ma'am!"

"Speaking of, where is your dad right now, anyway?"

"He's at the marketplace right now buying some vegetables for tonight's dinner. He said he wanted to make something special for mom and Vermillion since today's the first day of their training."

Emma Brown could see a shadow pass over the kid's face. "What's wrong?"

The 8-year-old bit her lip and looked down, away from her idol's searching gaze. "It's nothing."

Emma snorted at that. When someone said "Nothing" it always meant something was going. "Oh, really? Then how about you look me in the eye and say that again?"

Saph looked up and stared at her right in the eyes….unfortunately she was just a little kid going up against a fierce and renowned Huntress. There was no way she could win, and the Arc was the first one to blink.

"It's just...Why did she have to pick V over ME? _I'm _the one that's always wanted to be a Huntress, V only decided last week that she wanted the same thing and suddenly Mom just takes her out for training. How come it wasn't me?!"

"Hmm," Emma looked up to the sky and tapped her in chin in thought, before looking back at the kid who looked up to her in more ways than one. "...I've got no idea."

"WHAAAT?!" The angry word came rushing out like a bull.

"Hold on, let me finish." The brown-haired Huntress held up a finger to stop Saph from saying anything else. "The only one that would know for sure is your mom. Maybe it's because your sister is older than you by a few minutes, maybe not. I don't know. But you want to know something?"

The dark blonde-haired Arc nodded, and Emma gestured her with a finger to come closer. When Saph did so, she knelt down and pointed at her. "Your mom trusts _you_." She said, tapping the Arc on the chest at the end. "Between you and Vermillion, she chose _you_ to stay behind and be the woman of the house until she gets back."

Finished, Emma straightened up and patted her pants to try and get rid of any dirt from when she'd been kneeling on the ground in front of her husband. "Think about it. And while you do that, I'm gonna go and win back my husband."

The woman looked at where her faunus husband and Jaune were standing, the bouquet of flowers still in her left hand. "Baby, please!" She called out to her husband as she walked to them.

Saphron Arc looked at her idol...and just laughed. The strongest woman in the village, aside from her mom Violette Arc, was desperately trying to get her husband back even if it meant that she had to play the goofball in front of everyone. Saph _had _been about to take Jaune and continue on their way to the village center where the hill and tree were….but maybe they could stay a few more minutes to see how things would turn out between the Browns.

Emma Brown dropped to her knees again, in front of Jaune, her husband, and everyone in the village that just happened to pass by, and begged. "I'm sorry. I was drunk, it was all my fault and I shouldn't have done it. I'll even quit drinking! Will you please, _please _take me back?" She looked over to the 6-year-old boy in the wheelchair. "Jaune, help your _favorite _Aunt out, won't ya? You don't want to see your Aunt in the doghouse anymore, right?"

Jaune giggled at the sight of his mom's friend trying to pout and give him the puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh, stop it you big lug." Victor Brown Né Mars lightly slapped his wife's arm. "I forgive you already, there's no need to rope poor Jaune into this. You had me at '_I'll quit drinking_'. Plus," He looked up into his wife's eyes. "I missed you." He said softly.

In the blink of an eye, Emma Brown swept her husband off his feet and into her arms, french-kissing her for everyone to see. The cat faunus practically melted into his wife's arms, moaning against her lips.

As soon as their lips broke apart though, he seemed to realize where they were. His cheeks suddenly turning bright red, he lightly slapped his wife's arm in embarrassment. "Honey!" Victor mumbled. "Not when we're in public."

A teasing grin spread across Emma's face. "So, does that mean we can keep going if we're somewhere private?"

"Eh? W-wha-" Was all her husband could stammer out.

"Don't worry, your gallant knight will safely escort you home right now!" With all the urgency of a woman who hadn't gotten laid in a week, Emma Brown ran all the way back to her house with her husband in her arms, to the cheering of all the villagers that had been watching and were glad the two had finally made up.


End file.
